With each book I write, I become more and more convinced that the books have a life of their own, quite apart from me.
Interpretation
Books can take on a life and identity independent of their authors.
Madeleine L'Engle's quote reflects the idea that once a book is written, it transcends its creator, gaining its own significance and connection with readers. This suggests that the act of writing is not just an expression of the author's thoughts, but also a creation that evolves and resonates beyond the author's control, implying a deep relationship between literature and its audience.
In practice
Using this quote during a writer's workshop to inspire authors.
Truth is what is true, and it's not necessarily factual. Truth and fact are not the same thing. Truth does not contradict or deny facts, but it goes through and beyond facts. This is something that it is very difficult for some people to understand. Truth can be dangerous.
George MacDonald gives me renewed strength during times of trouble--times when I have seen people tempted to deny God--when he says, "The Son of God suffered unto death, not that men might not suffer, but that their sufferings might be like his.
If you don't recount your family history, it will be lost. Honor your own stories and tell them too. The tales may not seem very important, but they are what binds families and makes each of us who we are.
I never want to lose the story-loving child within me, or the adolescent, or the young woman, or the middle-aged one, because all together they help me to be fully alive on this journey, and show me that I must be willing to go where it takes me, even through the valley of the shadow.
The minute we begin to think we have all the answers, we forget the questions.
When we believe in the impossible, it becomes possible, and we can do all kinds of extraordinary things.
More harm is done by fools through foolishness than is done by evil-doers through wickedness.
Nothing is so exhausting as indecision, and nothing is so futile.
If the reason I give is a good one, you will act upon it. If it is a bad one I cannot make it better by piling epithet upon epithet. There is no logic in abuse; there is no argument in an epithet.
Feel the energy of your inner body. Immediately mental noise slows down or ceases. Feel it in your hands, your feet, your abdomen, your chest. Feel the life that you are, the life that animates the body. The body then becomes a doorway, so to speak, into a deeper sense of aliveness underneath the fluctuating emotions and underneath your thinking.
He is rich who owns the day, and no one owns the day who allows it to be invaded with fret and anxiety.
A man must be prepared not only to be a martyr, but to be a fool. It is absurd to say that a man is ready to toil and die for his convictions if he is not even ready to wear a wreathe around his head for them.
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